


[Fandom stats] How do ratings compare on AO3 vs. FFN?

by toastystats (destinationtoast)



Series: Fandom Stats [54]
Category: Fandom - Fandom
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2019-09-12 16:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16876263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinationtoast/pseuds/toastystats
Summary: How many fanworks have each rating on AO3 and on FFN?





	[Fandom stats] How do ratings compare on AO3 vs. FFN?

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted to Tumblr](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/114156457594/toastystats-how-do-ratings-compare-on-ao3-vs).
> 
> Note that by "popular" here I mean "common." I have other posts about which ratings receive the most kudos, etc.

**TOASTYSTATS: How do ratings compare on AO3 vs. FFN?**

Archive of our Own and Fanfiction.net have similar but not identical rating systems.  FFN differs in its policies, in that it prohibits explicit stories.  I was curious which ratings were most popular on each site.  

FFN, the older archive, has ratings K (for Kids), K+, T (for Teen), and M (for Mature).  AO3 has General, Teen and Up Audiences, Mature, and Explicit, and also has a Not Rated option.  For comparison, until recently, Wattpad had a very similar G/PG/PG-13/R rating system that mirrored US movie ratings, but they’ve switched to a binary option of All Audiences (13+) or Mature Content (17+).  


In comparing the usage of different ratings on AO3 vs. FFN, I first did archive searches to find the total numbers of archive works with each rating as of Feb 19, 2015.  Then I grouped K and K+ on FFN as being roughly equivalent to AO3′s General, and created the graph above.  

 **Despite popular belief that fanfic is mostly smut, the data suggest otherwise.** The Teen/T rating is most popular on both archives; on FFN it accounts for nearly 45% of the fanworks on the site, whereas it’s the rating of 31% of the AO3 fanworks.  A quarter of the AO3 fanworks use a rating that is not available on FFN (17% use Explicit and 8% Not Rated).  

We can also break down K and K+ into separate bars:

K+ is more popular than K on FFN (22% vs. 16%).

**Related stats:**

  * **[Is fanfic mostly porn?](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/65586599242/popularity-word-count-and-ratings-on-ao3-faq) ** (Part 1 -- [ **Ratings popularity among writers and readers**](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/65586599242/popularity-word-count-and-ratings-on-ao3-faq) on AO3.) For a case study of the Sherlock fandom in particular see [**slides 57-59**](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pgpITGSU0MAdAzmwgBCvm5Q7gKWutsZGCmSg2rEy0eU/edit#slide=id.g300ed4e48dc8f321935) of my SSC 2015 presentation.
  * [**AO3 vs. FFN: what languages are fanworks written in?**](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/113323520144/toastystats-what-languages-are-ao3-and-ffn)




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